A stunning strike by Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Al-Nassr to a 2-0 victory over Al-Khaleej in the Saudi Pro League’s 12th round on Saturday.
The Riyadh outfit had a flying start to the game and broke the deadlock after just nine minutes through Sadio Mane, but his goal was ruled out for offside in the build-up.
15 minutes later, Cristiano Ronaldo was found at the edge of the box and was offered too much space by Al-Khaleej defenders as the Portuguese took a touch and rifled a belter to give Al-Nassr the lead.
However, the visitors nearly found the equaliser as Al-Khaleej forward Mohamed Sherif curled one into the top corner but his effort hit the bar in the 34th minute.
Al-Khaleej started to look more threatening on the counter-attack and had another opportunity to level the scoring on the break but former Manchester United left-back Alex Telles made the recovery to stop the attack.
Aymeric Laporte got on the scoresheet to net his first goal for Al-Nassr and double his side’s advantage as he combined with Ronaldo to finish off a fluid set-piece move initiated by Telles near the hour mark.
Al-Nassr shot-stopper Nawaf Al-Aqidi was called into action in the 73rd minute to keep out a shot from Sherif and maintain his side’s two-goal cushion.
A relatively comfortable second half was enough for Al-Nassr to see off Al-Khaleej and secure all three points while keeping a clean sheet.
The win also kept Al-Nassr’s four-point gap to the top of the Saudi Pro League table as they travel to face Odion Ighalo’s Al-Wehda next Saturday.